While Enlightenment-era thinkers like Denis Diderot, Benjamin Franklin, René Descartes, David Hume, and Thomas Jefferson — giants from the age of reason — would like you to believe otherwise, we are not as rational as we think we are.
Recent books like Irrational Exuberance, Emotional Intelligence, and Descartes’ Error teach us that even the most analytical among us make decisions with emotions.
They can disparage the emotions as much as they want, but the fact remains that without emotions we can’t make a decision in the first place.
And strangely enough, the one incident that seemed to break the influence that the age of reason had on the Western mind occurred on September 13, 1848.
In this 11-minute episode of Rough Draft with Demian Farnworth, you’ll discover:
- The event that changed the way we think about the brain — and emotions
- The truth behind a responsible middle-aged man’s sudden and mysterious collapse into malingering
- The 11 major emotions
- How “reason-why” copy makes people feel good about their decisions
- What people can say when they do rude things to not offend anyone (and still get away with their behavior — it’s not apologizing, either)
- Demian’s favorite ad demonstrating “reason-why” copy in action
Rough Draft on iTunes
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